Abstract An efficient maghemite-ZnO nanocatalyst has been synthesized via a simple coprecipitation method, where ZnO nanoparticles are uniformly decorated on the maghemite core and characterized by XRD, SEM-EDS, ICP-AES, XPS, TEM, HRTEM, and Mossbauer spectroscopy; maghemite nanoparticles are in the typical size range 10-30 nm with ultrasmall (3-5 nm) ZnO nanoparticles. A competent and benign protocol is reported for various organic transformations, namely, transesterification, amidation, and O-acylation reaction in good to excellent yields (75-97%) using magnetically separable and reusable maghemite ZnO nanocatalyst.

Gade V.B., Rathi A.K., Bhalekar S.B., Tucek J., Tomanec O., Varma R.S., Zboril R.,  Shelke S.N., Gawande M.B.:"Iron-Oxide-Supported Ultrasmall ZnO Nanoparticles: Applications for Transesterification, Amidation, and O-Acylation Reactions," ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING, vol. 5, iss. 4, pp. 3314-3320, 2017. IF = 5.951. WP7